SSR with dust collector makes fluorescent lights flicker

CNC Machines Shapeoko
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When I use an SSR to switch my dust collector on, my overhead fluorescent lights flicker. Anyone know how to fix that?

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Fluorescent light are powered by a high voltage low current transformer (ballast). If there is a fluctuation in the 120V your lights will flicker. Take a look at your circuit that the lights are on and see what all is connected. A dust collector has an initial surge of power to start the motor. The high voltage on the lights drops from 120 lower and as a percentage of that lower voltage the high voltage in the lights goes lower and makes your lights flicker. Either reduce the amount of devices running on the circuit or you may have to put up with the flicker. After the DC motor stabilizes from the high draw of current to start up the motor your lights should stabilize.

I had bought a new house a few years ago and I have a lot of machinery in my shop. I put in a 220 volt circuit for my table saw and had not yet added any circuits. I was using the one outlet on the back wall and was running my Jet DC1100 on that circuit and several lights (fluroscent). When I turned on the dust collector the GFCI in the plug clicked off and the table saw was on a separate circuit. It is very scary when it goes dark and a 3 HP saw is running. Luckily I was not running any wood through the saw when the garage went dark. I added an emergency light that is battery backed up and comes on when the circuit goes off. I quickly got busy and added more circuits for the garage. In my current shop I have 3 rows of LED lights and each one is on a separate circuit for just such a circumstance. You dont want to be in the dark when other machinery is running.

You might want to turn off the breaker for your circuit and check the plug wiring for loose wires. Most likely you are at the limit of the current available to run that circuit. Maybe you can add another circuit. Fluorescent lights pull a lot of current. The cost of LED lights for a shop light has really gone down recently.

Let us know how this comes out.

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Thanks for all the info, Guy. I’ll start checking into those issues in the morning.

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if it’s just plain EMI, https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZQZQ5BQ could be of interest
(it’s not going to do a TON of stuff, but still better than nothing)

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